More lifting off with Ryanair

RYANAIR, the Irish no-frills airline, carried 1.46m passengers in July - a 41% increase on the same month last year. This is also an acceleration from the previous three months when passenger numbers grew by 38%.

The load factor, which measures the number of bums on seats, rose from 86% to 93% and the proportion booking online increased from 79% to 92%.

Ryanair reports its first-quarter financial results on Tuesday with profits expected to have risen by 45% to £40m. The shares rose 10p to 382 1/2p.